After the economic meltdown that ensued last year, many banks and lending institutions have severely limited access to credit. This shortage of available credit has both helped and hurt American consumers. It has helped to reduce the debt bubble that was building and taught people that saving is just as sexy as spending. But the lack of credit really hurts people looking to obtain financial aid for school or wanting to finance a home purchase. In the long run, the tightening of the credit markets will likely have a positive effect, but keeping up with the Jones’ will likely be a thing of the past, at least in the sense that it once was.

Many lenders have begun cracking down on student loans and even going so far as to cancel lending programs altogether. One financial aid provider, Sallie Mae, recently pulled their Career Training Loan line of aid from hundreds of flight, trade, and technical schools nation wide. This will create a huge need for credit from other providers in the short term, but the long term effects will be much more profound and long-lasting.

Just think, when people no longer have access to financial aid for education and training, the amount of educated and qualified professionals in the work force will eventually decline. An accordion effect will ensue where the demand for skills will reach a certain point that it will once again become lucrative to lend to certain schools that train professionals for certain jobs.

For instance, flight schools that train pilots will no longer have as many students, which in turn will create a huge demand in the coming years for qualified pilot candidates. This demand will encourage more people to strike out and bite the bullet to get into flight school, even if they have to accept loan packages with less than optimal APR or repayment terms. Eventually, something’s got to give if the demand for qualified, educated professionals gets intense enough.

Educational financing is just the tip of the iceberg. Without the ability to get credit, Americans will likely be forced to change their spending behavior. Take for instance a person who wants to buy a home and has less than optimal credit. They may only be able to get a less than prime loan, if any loan at all. Even those with decent to good credit may eventually find it very hard to secure a home loan. This will further hurt the housing market and help to keep home prices deflated in the short to mid term.

Our most recent economic recession will not only affect everyone in the short and mid terms, but in the long term as well. There will likely be an entire generation that will not have access to adequate lending tools, and therefore will suffer from not being able to take advantage of the educational opportunities around them or make the investments that will benefit them and their families’ years down the road. People will need to strive to keep their credit as clean as possible and will need to learn how to manage their finances if they are to survive the next few years in this credit-deficient economic environment.